Chapter 83 - Page 2

"But some say that what your Alma teaches is wholly new--a revelation
of things before unimagined, even by the poets. To do his bidding,
then, some new faculty must be vouchsafed, whereby to apprehend aright."

"So have I always thought," said Mohi.

"If Alma teaches love, I want no gift to learn," said Yoomy.

"All that is vital in the Master's faith, lived here in Mardi, and in
humble dells was practiced, long previous to the Master's coming. But
never before was virtue so lifted up among us, that all might see;
never before did rays from heaven descend to glorify it, But are
Truth, Justice, and Love, the revelations of Alma alone? Were they
never heard of till he came? Oh! Alma but opens unto us our own
hearts. Were his precepts strange we would recoil--not one feeling
would respond; whereas, once hearkened to, our souls embrace them as
with the instinctive tendrils of a vine."

"But," said Babbalanja, "since Alma, they say, was solely intent upon
the things of the Mardi to come--which to all, must seem uncertain--of
what benefit his precepts for the daily lives led here?"

"Would! would that Alma might once more descend! Brother! were the
turf our everlasting pillow, still would the Master's faith answer a
blessed end;--making us more truly happy _here_. _That_ is the first
and chief result; for holy here, we must be holy elsewhere. 'Tis
Mardi, to which loved Alma gives his laws; not Paradise."

"Full soon will I be testing all these things," murmured Mohi.

"Old man," said Media, "thy years and Mohi's lead ye both to dwell
upon the unknown future. But speak to me of other themes. Tell me of
this island and its people. From all I have heard, and now behold, I
gather that here there dwells no king; that ye are left to yourselves;
and that this mystic Love, ye speak of, is your ruler. Is it so? Then,
are ye full as visionary, as Mardi rumors. And though for a time, ye
may have prospered,--long, ye can not be, without some sharp lesson to
convince ye, that your faith in Mardian virtue is entirely vain."

"Truth. We have no king; for Alma's precepts rebuke the arrogance of
place and power. He is the tribune of mankind; nor will his true faith
be universal Mardi's, till our whole race is kingless. But think not
we believe in man's perfection. Yet, against all good, he is not
absolutely set. In his heart, there is a germ. _That_ we seek to
foster. To _that_ we cling; else, all were hopeless!"

"Your social state?"

"It is imperfect; and long must so remain. But we make not the
miserable many support the happy few. Nor by annulling reason's laws,